Mac's New Year Attack

The gaffer wants us to play good football and that’s the same every day in training"

Kevin McDonald

Kevin McDonald is hoping to build on his recent good form and continue his customary strong ‘second halves’ to the season to boost Wolves’ promotion push.

The Scottish midfielder has been at the hub of much of Wolves’ recent good football by pulling the strings in the centre of the park, as the team return to action against Bristol City on Saturday hoping to build on the most recent impressive display against Preston.

And McDonald has revealed that he tends to improve over the course of the season, as he targets being able to maintain the standards of recent weeks.

“I think I’ve done o-k in recent weeks,” said the 25-year-old.

“For some reason I always seem to do better after Christmas.

“I don’t know why that is but it’s been like that for the last few years.

“I feel I’ve been doing alright but the main thing is for the team to get back to regular winning ways.

“I want to keep to the standards I have set and then as a team we want to keep to a high standard which gives us the best chance of getting results.

“The gaffer is constantly asking us questions and wanting us to improve and that is what we need to rise to and keep performing well.”

McDonald acknowledges it was disappointing not to have had the opportunity to build on the impressive Preston display when last weekend’s trip to Crawley was postponed due to a waterlogged pitch.

But on the positive, he believes it at least allowed the squad to recharge the batteries after the busy Christmas schedule.

He added: “We were all ready for a game last week but unfortunately the pitch at Crawley wasn’t playable.

“I’ve played there last year and can imagine it would have been difficult with the conditions but you can’t do anything about the weather.

“In a way it wasn’t bad to have a little break and get some rest into the legs!

“Come Monday we were back in and raring to go ahead of the Bristol City game.

“I think the biggest disappointment was that we had played so well against Preston and wanted to pick up from where we had left off.

“But I think we’ve played well in a lot of the games recently and I’m not sure how we’ve only come away with the points which we have.

“We’re looking forward to playing Bristol City now and while it will be a hard game it is one we have go out and win.

“If we can give our all and reproduce what we did against Preston then we’ve got a good chance.

“We’ll want to get on the front foot early on and the gaffer always wants us to start well and get the fans behind us.”

Results are clearly more important than performances, but McDonald sees no reason why Wolves should not “click” and enjoy both over the second half of the season.

And he says playing some decent stuff remains a priority during Kenny Jackett’s training sessions, with the addition of a regular goalscoring element the key as the Sky Bet League One promotion race hots up.

“Football can be so strange sometimes,” he says.

“Earlier on in the season we weren’t playing all that well but were coming away with wins.

“Then over Christmas we were playing really well but didn’t get the wins that we wanted.

“That’s football, it can happen.

“Certain things have gone against us but we have to think about the positives because we know that if we keep playing as we have been the results will come.

“We have just got to keep plugging away.

“The gaffer wants us to play good football and that’s the same every day in training.

“We have a lot of 11 v 11 and small sided games with the focus on playing good stuff and playing out from the back.

“We all enjoy doing that and I think we’ve managed to make it click in most of the right areas but just need to turn that into more goals.

“That’s something as a team we all have to contribute to although at the end of the day it doesn’t matter who scores – we just need to win games.

“If we can turn more of our football into goals I am sure we will be there or thereabouts at the end of the season.”